María-Ángeles Revilla-Camacho

The value co-creation process as a determinant of customer satisfaction

Purpose – The greater part of the academic literature coincides in highlighting the positive influence that consumer participation has on the value created in service delivery. In this sense, research stands out which studies the consumers role as a value co-creator in the service. However, there are few studies which analyze the consequences of co-creation behavior from the customer perspective. This research aims to fill this gap. To do so, it sets out from the measuring of co-creation from the perspective of the customers themselves and proposes that there is a direct relationship between value co-creation behavior and customer satisfaction with the service experience. Design/methodology/approach – To verify the hypothesis proposed, adults over 18 were personally interviewed. They had to be regular users of firms in the beauty parlor and personal care sector. The data collection finished with 547 duly-completed questionnaires. The SPSS 20 and AMOS 20 statistical programs were used for the data analysi...

Seeking a Sustainable Competitive Advantage in Periods of Economic Recession for SMEs and Entrepreneurs: The Role of Value Co-creation and Customer Trust in the Service Provider

A sustainable competitive advantage is obtained when firms have resources that are valuable, rare, and unique. In this sense, building relationships that are valuable for customers and based on trust is a critical requirement for corporate success, especially in situations of economic crisis such as the current one. On the other hand, the greater part of the academic literature coincides in highlighting the positive influence that consumer participation has on the value created in service delivery. In this vein, research stands out which studies the consumer’s role as a value co-creator in the service. However, there are few studies which analyze the consequences of co-creation behavior from the customer perspective. This research means to fill this gap and proposes that there is a direct relationship between value co-creation behavior and the customer’s trust in the firm. The data for the empirical research have been obtained from a sample of regular users of firms in the personal image sector—a sector which is mostly made up of young, self-employed entrepreneurs and microenterprises. The implications for management would stem from the need to foster the customers’ active participation in value creation by adapting actions and processes with this in mind. This can be especially important in the case of small firms and entrepreneurs, forced into seeking a sustainable competitive advantage when facing large corporations.

The Effect of Entrepreneurial Orientation on Results: An Application to the Hotel Sector

The aim of this work is to investigate the impact of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on the performance of firms belonging to the hotel industry. To do so, an empirical study is carried out with a sample of 79 independent hotels, all located in the south of Spain. The results suggest that there is a significant and negative result between EO and financial performance, measured in objective terms. This result is due to the willingness to innovate, to take risks, to carry out self-directed actions and be more proactive and aggressive than competitors entailing a cost for the organization which has a negative short-term effect.

Neuromarketing as a Subject of Legitimacy

Even though the concept of neuromarketing is relatively new, it already has numerous opponents. They stress that its interest in the consumer’s subconscious is a clear example of manipulation and an invasion of individual privacy. Yet other authors postulate the countless advantages stemming from a better understanding of the consumers’ wishes enabling organizations to design offers which are more adapted to their private and innermost desires. Due to the controversy that its development and application have created, the need to legitimize this new stream of marketing is therefore evident. However, there are no studies in this field, given the difficulty of appropriately measuring the legitimacy construct and the lack of consensus regarding the term neuromarketing. This work carries out a first approximation to this matter, analyzing the concept of neuromarketing and its evolution regarding its degree of acceptance and dissemination in the scientific community. The ultimate purpose is to determine if neuromarketing is a concept that needs to be legitimized. The results obtained will provide a basis for an in-depth study which will allow the establishing of neuromarketing’s profile of legitimacy and tackle its legitimization in terms of the weaknesses and strengths of each of the dimensions and for each of the sources of legitimacy.